Sorry to start a new thread but my old one will not come up on my computer. I have HP Media and I am running XP. My drive will not read the movies and every disc I put in there reads blank. If I right click on the drive, it shows that there is nothing on the disc twhen in fact there is. I did a restore to an earlier date before the problem as recommended and that did not fix the problem. Also, when I push the button to open the drive door, it opens and closes and doesn't stay open as it should. Everything was fine one day and then the next day for no reason, the drive is malfunctioning. I hope it is something simple and will not require a new drive ugh! Thanks...Liz

My two year old laptop is beginning to show its age, so I'm getting the whole thing reformatted. So I need to back everything up...

Problem - whenever I put a blank dvd in, nothing happens. The disc is spinning, but when I try to open it up in Explorer, Explorer crashes. The Prompting window never comes up either. When I take the disc out, it is quite hot, and Explorer returns to normal. I've tried both DVD-R and DVD-RW - same results.

I put a normal dvd movie in and it works absolutely fine.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Or am I gonna have to use CD's (I've run out) or my flash drive (only 512mb)?

A:Solved: DVD Drive reads movies but not blanks

Fixed it!

I tried formatting the dvd (on another computer) and the formatted disc appears to work fine!

I went here for help on this matter, I followed what I think is exactly how to do what I needed.But when ever I convert home movies or burn them to dvd I get BSOD saying it's doing a minidump. Then restarts. Just started happening last week. So I deleted my burning Software thinking that may have been the issue/s. But dont know. I know some about pc's but don't know anything on how to fix BSOD.

A:Bsod when burning movies or coverting home movies

Please update these older drivers. Links are included to assist in looking up the source of the drivers. If unable to find an update, please remove (un-install) the program responsible for that driver. DO NOT manually delete/rename the driver as it may make the system unbootable!

A computer I'm working on had a bad MB, which I have replaced. The hard drive is good. The people want me to see if I can get all their photos and movies off on blank media for them in case their hard drive ever crashes. How is the best way to do that?

A:Solved: getting home movies off hard drive to dvd

How much media is there? In any case its a good idea to have a portable external drive that you back up all the data to and also to DVD as a secondary backup that is easy to mail or take off site (though an external drive is almost as easy to transport).Where DVD backup is concerned you can do it manually using any free DVD burning program (IMGBurn, CDBurnerXP, etc.) providing your own data cutoff points when the DVD is full. I purchased a DVD transformer from ClickFree some time ago and that makes backup to DVD a snap. It will do all your data or you can specify only certain directories and then it will only prompt you to label and exchange DVDs when one is finished, until the whole job is finished. Very simple and thorough, found one for $18 at buy.com.

I download my movies off a flashdrive and play them on my laptop. the movies with MPEG types play with sound and everything and everything else doesnt have sound. What do i do to get sound on those video types like MKV, AVI Type files.

A:I download movies onto my laptop and the movies with a MPEG ...

Hi @Noath17bell, Welcome to the HP Forum. I grasp that you downloaded movies onto an USB drive, when you try to play them , the ones in MPEG format has both video and audio.but the other formats you get the video but no audio. As this does not appear to be a hardware issue, but a software one please contact Chromebook Help. HP does not support the Chrome operating system but does support the hardware. This link may also be useful. HP Chrome OS - Frequently Asked Questions about Your HP Chromebook or Chromebox. Good Luck! To say thanks for helping, please click the "Thumbs Up Icon" below. If you feel this post lead to a resolution, please choose "Accepted Solution " to help others who may have a similar query find it with greater ease.

If you select the Videos app from the Metro screen, and then select "my videos", you can choose to view all, movies, tv or personal files.

In my library I have divided my own files into TV and Movies (using Explorer), and can see all of them intermingled when I select "all" or "personal" on the "my videos" screen. However the "movies" or "tv" lists are empty except that I am invited to look at shows in the Xbox video store.

Is it possible to divide my own files or store them in such a way that they can appear in their respective tv or movies lists on the "my videos" screen (and if so, is there a specific format that I need to have them in, so that, for example, I can group episodes of tv programs together into series, and so on) or is it just for movies and tv programs that I have downloaded form the Xbox /Microsoft store?

I have many 8mm home movies which are on small REELS. I would like to know if anyone is aware of a device that would transfer the movies to VHS. I know that this can be done professionally, however, because of the fact that I have so many reels, I figure it would probably be cheaper if I purchased the device if there is such a thing. Thank you for your help. (someone mentioned that there may be a camcorder who does this but I am not aware of this.)

A:8mm home movies

I think purchasing the device would be expensive. My suggestion would be to splice all the reels together into a few large ones and have them converted to DVD, which will be superior to VHS, as well as easy to make backup copies with no loss in quality.

I have two hours of 16mm home movies from the early 1900s that have been converted to DVD. I want to post them for many family members to view. What is the best venue/way to do this? UTube? other free site?

A:Home movies

Is it in DVD format, i.e. does it have, among other things, a folder called VIDEO_TS? If so, you could always create an ISO and give them instructions on how to burn the image to disc so they can watch it. Otherwise, if they're a bunch of files like AVIs, MP4s, etc., then you could always upload them to a site like Dropbox, give links for them to download and/or stream, and perhaps links to a program such as VLC Player to ensure the CODECs will be handled properly on playback.

I have a DVD that has a home movie put on it from a digital video camera..and I would like to know if there is a way that I can upload it to my computer, change the format, and burn it to a CD that can be played on a regular CD-Rom. in stead of a DVD so the person who doesn't have a DVD can still view it on there Computer. and if so, what format would I change it to? any help would be greatly appreciated.........

Hi and thank you for reading & answering my post. With the holidays I have gotten out my trusty old camera to take some home movies. Now I am trying to capture them to view on my DVD player for TV. It's been some time since I did this. (I actually did accomplish this fet once). I use a digital camera that takes home movies. When I upload them to my computer they are copied as video clip AVI winamp media files. I use Roxio Easy CD creator 5 to burn my photos to a CD-R disc, but it will not burn my home movies for viewing on my DVD's. I can only view the home movies on computers. Duh... I know I am pretty lame... I tried burning to DVD-R disc but I don't have a DVD burner on my hard drive. Duh again... I'm sure I must need a DVD burner installed on my hard drive... but when I first got my camera many moons ago I was able to see my home movies via the DVD player. I can't remember how I did it. (If you don't use it you lose it... my brain!) Is it possible to burn my home movies to a DVD disc or... maybe my DVD could read Mp stuff and my new DVD won't??? So many questions for a beginner. Can you help? I do have software with my camera... Pixela...Imagemixer VCD... Thanks again for any suggestions.TAG

Trying to use Ulead's VideoStudio 8 software package to edit and put home movies on DVDs. My objective is to be able to accomplish six things:1. Edit captured home movies to remove gaps and blank or unwanted frames2. Divide each of the hour long home movies into about 6 Chapters3. Insert a transition technique in between the Chapters4. Insert a title for each DVD created5. Create a Chapter page that displays about 6 Chapters with Chapter Titles6. Burn the completed project to a DVDMy question is which of the two options offered within VideoStudio 8 should I be using;VideoStudio Movie Wizard or VideoStudio Editor?

I have a sony HDD camcorder. It records in Dolby 5.1 Sound, myu problem is when i play the video in Windows media player I can see the video but with no sound?

What do I need to hear my home movies that are in Dolby 5.1 sound.

Is there software that convers 5.1 to mpeg????

A:No Sound On Home Movies

Never done it myself, but here is one I found that might work - not many want to go from Dolby to something else, usually go the other way...http://www.ivanview.com/River-Past-Audio-Converter-review1001.html

hi all,i have a quick question, basically my mum has put a bunch of old home movies onto a dvd for me, but theres a bunch of rubbish i want to edit out.

is there a program where i can cut sections of it and put the parts i want to keep all together? She left all the parts where there lens cap has been left on, lots of snowy parts and film of the ground etc.

it would be good if theres a basic program that i could use, preferably freeware

not sure what i am doing wrong but when i burn my home movie to dvd and then play the dvd i have this unwanted sound coming through its like a tick sound, then if i play the dvd throung the computer it windows cant play it corrupt file and power dvd cant play it too,it plays fine on the play station apart from this noise help please as i just learnt how to get it to dvd, i have nero 7

I have a good many VHS-C tapes from some years back that I would now like to transfer to DVD. Is it possible to edit the tapes onto DVD simply by using a combination DVD/VCR combo recorder? Of course, I'm looking for the best/easiest way to do this. And I must admit that I have no idea at all as to how to go about this, so I hope my questions don't sound stupid.

For example, I may want to transfer only 10 minutes of a 30-min. VCH-C tape onto DVD. Would I be able to simultaneously push PLAY on the VHS and RECORD on the DVD recorder in order to do this, and then push PAUSE on the DVD whenever I want to FF the tape to the next useable segment? Of course I would plan to continue adding segments from other VHS-C tapes to fill up the blank DVD.

I would've considered doing this a few years ago, but I always figured it would be quite a cumbersome process. I'm wondering if recent technological advances have made the process considerably easier.

hi all! i have some vcr tapes of my son from birth to around 3 years old.i have been hearing about vcd's nd being able to transfer vcr to vcd's with my computer. i was also told i can download movies and burn them with my regular burner.i am really interested in transfering my kids movies but dont know what i need or how to do it.i would really appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction.

I have a number of short home movies that I would love to burn to DVD to be able to watch on the TV.Nero wont burn AVI or MOV formats which are what I have and I tried "Recoding" via Nero and that wont play on my DVD Player either.I am confused I thought it would be easy.Do I need to Encript not that I know what that means or do I need some other burning software that can convert AVI & MOV so that it can be played on a DVD player (mine is a Samsung DVD-5600).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

A:How Do I Burn My Home Movies To Dvd

Hi there! Firstly you would have to convert all the video clips you have into a format that would be compatable for burning to a DVD. This can be long and lengthy process however have a look at DVD Santa or Digital Digest or Google's resultsHope this helps!

I recently purchased a firewire port and Ulead Video Studio 6 to go with my JVC DV camcorder. I also have Windows XP which has Movie Maker on it. THis may be a dumb question, but do I need to purchase a DVD-RW drive if I want to burn my movies to play on my DVD player? I have a Panasonic DVD player, that says it supports Windows Movie Maker, so does that mean I can burn the video to a CD-R in the WIndows Movie Maker format and it will work?? I am just trying to find the cheapest solution possible so that I can have these home movies playable on a DVD player. I do not want to purchase more expensive items just to do home movies!!! Please help!!!!!!!

A:Burning Home Movies to DVD????

Good news. You do not need a DVD burner.

I assume your video files are in .mpg or .avi format on your computer. What you need to do is convert them to a format call Video CD or VCD. Most DVD players are capable of playing these types of disks.

Good Morning!This is a repeat post. I posted earlier to another group by mistake. I have put my old reel 8mm home movies on VHS and now on DVD. This was a lot of work. I now want to take some scenes from the DVD and create another DVD for relatives that are only in certain scenes. What is the easiest way to do this? I do have Vista with my newest laptop that has the DVD Burner so I'm not completely educated on Vista as of yet. I have a Roxio program but not sure it has what I need to do this and I also have windows media. Thanks for your help.

A:DVD to DVD copy of old home movies

What you can do, and it works for me on Vista HP is to copy the .vob files off of the DVD into a "staging" folder on your hard drive. Then change the extension of each file from .vob to .mpg so Windows Movie Maker will recongnize the file and be able to import it. You can then edit those files and when finished publish them back to DVD.

You can do approximately the same thing with Roxio if you have the video components of the suite (Videowave, MYDVD, etc.).

I was wondering if there is a recommend software that will help copy my personal DVD movies to my external hard drive. I travel a lot and would not like to have to carry a bunch of DVD's or music CD's with me. I am not looking to break any laws, just looking to make things easier for me while my family can enjoy the same movies while I am away.

A:Copy Home DVD Movies to HD

HOME movies are one thing - just 'burn' another copy as you are making them

puchased commercially made movies are a different subject, and it really sounds like you are asking about this, on this forum, it is NOT permissable for a member to help with requests, such as your request would fall under as you're asking it,

I've tried searching for this answer everywhere but is there a way to actually share home movies via the web? We record my son's football games and such and capture them to the computer but most of our relatives live out of state, so I was wondering if there was a way to share large files like this without sharing with the whole world sort of thing. Thanks for anyone's input.

Heather

A:Solved: Sharing Home Movies

Here's something you might try. You can upload a file up to 1 gig. in size and a e-mail is sent to the person receiving it. Then all they have to do is download it to view. http://www.yousendit.com/

I have made a lot of VHS videos, and I have been able, with the proper VHS recorder, to insert audio (songs from CDs) onto the videos. My VHS machine has an "audio insert" button. I am now wanting to do the same sort of thing, but with DVDs instead of VHS tapes. I am looking for a DVD recorder (or software) that would allow me to add music (from a CD) on top of a recorded home movie , just as I was able to do with my VHS home movies. Can you tell if there is such a dvd recorder, or software for my computer, that would enable me to take a homemade dvd recording, and overdub music onto the picture that is already there? I am looking for the least complicated, user-friendly method. Thanks.

A:Adding Music to home movies

Just about any video editing software program like Adobe Premiere Elements, Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio, will let you reduce or mute the natural audio to any extent you want and add your own audio. Premiere Elements is particularly good at this since you can add two additional audio tracks, or three if you eliminate the original audio alltogether, plus a narration track and a soundtrack track (I have version 3.0) and you have full control over precise placement/adjustment of the audio--something that wouldn't be very easy to do with a hardware solution. Its also a breeze to create the DVDs from there as well so that would be my solution.

What do I need to cut scenes from movies and insert them in my home movie? I have Pinnacle Studio 12 for the video editing.

A:Putting DVD scenes in home movies

Studio 12 is capable of doing it all. Just edit the scenes from the movie first and later insert them into the home movie file. You can even import a DVD title directly with Studio but if it's DRM'ed (copy protected) then none of that will work.

Im looking for a high quality and efficient way to centrally store and watch home movies and listen to music.

I am a mac guy. I have the following configuration today

-Mackbook pro-airport extreme router with wired/wireless home network-ipad-receiver, BR, and TV connected hard wire to the networkATV connected to the network

I am looking at 2 options

1. Purchase a high quality NAS such as a Synology. However ATV wont play anything without itunes running so I would need a computer on with itunes for this to work. I understand that I might be able to get around this with a jail break of the ATV

2. I want to purchase another macbook(maybe a macbook air). I can take my old macbook pro and convert it to a NAS hub by adding hard drives. This would fix the issue of itunes needing to run but power consumption is greater. Not sure if I will get the same performance as option 1.

Long Version:
System & Such, Dell Vostro. Windows XP SP3, AMD 64 x2.
Story: My wife and I have a 7 month old daughter. I'm trying to send a DVD of home movies to my mother in Tucson. I have recordings from my Sony DCR-SR42 HDD Handycam. I edited them in AVS Video Editor 4.1 (beta). I saved them as a 'movie file'. I had to burn them to a DVD using CD Burner XP The final DVD will play on my computers, but will not play on our home DVD player. The files that were burned to the disk were 6 .VOB files and 2 .BUP and 2 .IFO files. Are these file types that most DVD players don't recognize? What suggestions do you have to get my home movies sent by DVD to my mother so she can easily pop the disk in player and enjoy? Thanks for all help!

I've been trying to figure this out all week with no luck. I've got some home movies that I'm trying to transfer to my computer. I have a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD105 that uses 8cm disks. According to the instruction manual it does not support a computer connection.

How can I get videos that I record onto my computer? The camcorder came with Nero Express 6 and our computer came with Roxio, but I can't figure either one of them out.

I'm mainly wanting to share videos with friends and family on Facebook. Is there some other software that I need, or am I just missing something with what I already have? Thanks.

Dan

A:Putting home movies on computer?

Follow the first part of this guide: http://www.digitalfaq.com/guides/video/edit-dvd-recorder.htm

That gets the video off the disc.

Edit if you need/want.

But then video has to be converted to a web-friendly format, such as Flash. Free software exists for this, such as SUPER. http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.htmlConvert to H.264 or FLV (Flash Video) to share online.

I converted my home movies to DVD using a Digital Vedio Disc Recorder &Video Cassette Recorder. You can't edit with this. I want to put downloadthe DVD into my PC and then edit it but I have been unable to. Itried Handbrake, DVD decrypter, and Aimsoft DVD Ripper, but I've hadno luck. I need some help with what to do next. Thanks for any ideasthewade.young

A:trouble downloading my DVD converted from my home VHS movies

You will probably need to have Paid software like Nero Vision (part of the full Nero Burning Rom program) And import your DVD into that. Or you can try Windows DVD Maker

I want to be able to copy my old home movies, from my camcoder, unto my computer. What programs best capture the video onto the computer, so it can be copies onto DVD? What connection do i need because I am not sure how to connect the actual camcoder to computer.DLL Files

A:copy my old home movies, from my camcoder, unto my computer

I have moved to a thread of your own, please do not ask questions in other peoples post

I have software to convert my pc home movies (holidays etc), so that they play on my DVD player. However, my problem is, that I've lost my DVD manual, telling me which formats that it plays. Any idea what format I would have to convert my home movies (which are on my PC hard drive), so that they play on my DVD player. I want to show them to family and friends when they visit.

If I know which format to convert them to, then the rest I can manage on my own. Any ideas?

Hello all. Apologies for the long thread title, but I wanted to be clear on my intentions.

Namely: I have home-movies on DVD which I want to put on my hard drive, and I need them in a format which I can edit. Again, just to clarify: these are NOT copyrighted DVDs, but were originally VHS tapes I made with a camcorder, which I recorded onto DVDs. There is no copy protection involved, so I don't need any software for that.

What I do need, is a simple to use software to convert the video to files on my hard drive, in whatever format is easily edited and maintains the original quality of the video.

I have searched for freeware for this purpose, but all I can find is a bunch of junk for video pirates... and that's not what I want or need. Does anyone know an easy way to accomplish this?

I have been burning home movies (from a Sony Hi-8 camcorder) to DVD with no problem except they do not hold the original quality unless I use the highest quality setting (HQ), but then I can only fit about 50 mins. on one 4.7GB DVD+R. I have had several people swear to me that they get great quality with the lower SP, LP or EP settings and are fitting 2-3 hours of footage on one DVD. My question is, what am I doing wrong? I have tried 2 software programs, Cyberlink Power Director and also Roxio VideoWave 4. Both are easy to use and the DVD burns fine, but in the SP, LP or EP settings, my picture comes out blurry and unsteady. Is there anyway to keep the original tape quality and still fit 2-3 hours on a 4.6GB disc? Thank you!

What do I need to burn mpeg on DVD+R and play it on regular home dvd player?

I can do it if I burn it on CD, but it shows nothing when I burn it to DVD...

I have Nero 6 and Alcohol 120%...

Thanks

A:Burning Mpeg Movies On Dvd+r and play it on home dvd player

Depends on your DVD player - some play only standard DVD's others will play all formats, it usually says on the box and the instruction manual - but I have seen many that will play DVD+R or DVD-R but not both.

I just finished the daunting task of putting all of my VCR home movies onto DVD's. I wanted an extra way to save them also, so I thought I would buy a removable memory card and store them on it also. I cannot get my dvd's onto the hard drive. It keeps saying some TS file format is unreadable. I've tried a few different means....windows movie player, NTI, Roxio, etc. I guess I don't know what I'm doing. Is this a do-able task? Any suggestions on how to get the job done? THANKS! Gwen

A:Putting dvd home movies onto a removable memory card

Try ripping them with this: http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=VOB2MPG

It will give you just the video and audio in a single file, MPEG's are huge. Using a card really isn't feasible. Get a external hardrive.

Use itunes for my main music and video As Windows Media Player seems to have a mind of it's own and imports and changes everytime I open it!Use Picasa for viewing my pics and quite happy with it as it does as it's told lol

Seeking a similar program for just importing my family videos into and nothing elseEasy to use and free.Any suggestions welcome please

I dont have a good video card. Just the one that came on my compaq and as far as I can tell, after using video editing software to make some short home type movies with one song as background music, I can watch them on my pc....but cant get them out any way. Emails won't allow me to because of the low amount of MB's allowed to attach. Is there other ways to send them. I have heard of other ways people communicate online and transfer larger files, but dont know how. I thought about zip files...but I doubt they compress enough either. I am pretty good on my pc...but not advanced and need help. I have a dvd burner..but no outputs on the pc except usb ports and audio. HELPJames

A:is there a way to transfer files like home movies, larger than most emails alow

How big are the files. You have a couple of options. If you are on a broadband connection, you could setup your own FTP server on your computer.

I sometimes use YouSendIt. You can send files up to 100mb in size. They use to allow 1gb. They just recently changed it to 100mb.http://www.yousendit.com/

Hi, I have a digital camera and have used Windows movie maker to piece together a home "movie".What I like to do is burn it to a dvd preferably to NTSC format, by a software program, and I would like this software program to allow me to make chapters and allow an option not to close the disc. I have tried Total video2dvd and VSO: Total video burned to a disc but the playback stuttered, VSO no pic.I was wondering what users have found that was good. Don't mind paying a small fee (~$40)THANKSMattEdited topic title for clarity-MG

It seems there are quite a few threads started with the same question: "How do I get video from my camcorder to my computer and burn it to a CD/DVD?". I thought it would be good to have this one thread to use and "stick it" so that people can just refer here. Also, the following is my experience and by no means exclusive. Feel free to add your own tips and build this thread into a nice resource. As the cost of DVD burners, digital camcorders, and hard drive space has come way down and the use of DVD players at home gone way up, putting home movies on DVD is something everyone is going to want to do eventually. And needless to say, Mulder has a ton of home movies to transfer to DVD!

You can skip all the detail here and go directly to "Quick Recap" if you are adventurous!

First, for those that do not know anything about getting video from your camcorder into your computer, there are primarily two ways to do it at least these are the two most common ways. If you have a digital camcorder, I would recommend only one way and that is to have a Firewire PCI card (you could also use a harware encoder and/or USB transfer), but I'll leave that for someone else to discuss).*****************UPDATE --2-13-05************************

I wanted to update this thread because there is finally a product that does a good job encoding to MPEG--an external hardware encoder so this is the method I would recommend:

Can anyone steer me in the right direction for buying software to make movies (with music or voice-overs) from my home movies and photos. I am looking at Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 11,http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-premiere-elements/buying-guide.edu.html,but while comparing, I also found a site that ranks various software:http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/.I am curious about the CyberLink Power Director, which is inexpensive and easy to use. While researching it, I found a package from CyberLinkhttp://www.cyberlink.com/products/director-suite/features_en_US.html?affid=2581_977_545_0_0_ENU&utm_source=CLTR_DetailBanner&utm_medium=CLTR_DetailBanner_0_powerdirector-ultra&utm_campaign=CL_Trial&r=1that includes 4 programs which edit photos, color, and audio too. Cha-ching! It is more expensive, but I wonder if it is worth the money vs. the Adobe product.I am an amateur, but I really want to create fantastic movies that have a classic look, but can do professional techniques like time remapping that will give a time-lapse feeling. I want to be able to burn a bunch of videos with a menu onto a DVD. That way, I can watch a few videos at a time and not bore the family to tears. Any ideas? Do you use a program that's even better?

A:Software to Make Videos from Home Movies & Photo Collections

This is a subject that is very difficult to advise on unless you've used all the available products and it's very difficult/impossible to test drive in a store.I'm not a fan of the Adobe products. If you want software that is highly supported by 3rd party filters, it's top of the list. I don't know about the Elements level but it's certainly true in the full versions of Premiere and Photoshop. For all apps, you need to be careful about formats you want to import and export. If you have particular needs like your time remapping, then you will have to have that ability on the list.Effects get tedious in short order. We've all seen the zooming in and out home movies that make you feel sick and the various dissolves used ad tedium. Fun to play with but not very creative. I use mostly straight cuts or lap dissolves. Effects are easily recognized by other dabblers in the field. Shooting and timing is everything when creating interesting movies.Although I use higher end editor these days, I used to use VirtualDub. To make effects, I would extract the frames of the clip, batch process in an image editor with the effect and reassemble the frames in the video. I could do almost anything including variable speed video. Interesting movies depend on being creative, not gimmicky.If you plan on burning menued DVDs, remember that you will have to use Mpeg2 on the actual disk which is low compression therefore you cannot get much on the DVD (compared to... Read more

I don't want to "pirate" any movies, but would like to rip DVD's that I bought into my computer so I can put them on my iPod.Are there ways to rip copy protected DVD's with many chapters/episodes etc?Which software allows me to do it? Is it legal?

A:Any way to rip DVD movies into my hard drive?

There is no legal way to do that in the USA and discussing ways of doing so is against site rules.